1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improved data processing system and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for locating dead e-mail identifications.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic mail (e-mail) provides the transmission of messages over a network. An e-mail system requires a messaging system, which provides a store and forward capability, and a mail program that provides a user interface with send and receive functions.
Simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) is the standard e-mail protocol on the Internet. It is a transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) that defines a message format and a message transfer agent (MTA), which stores and forwards the mail. SMTP was originally designed for only text; however, multipurpose Internet mail extensions (MIME) and other encoding methods enable files, such as programs and multimedia content, to be attached to e-mail messages.
SMTP servers route SMTP messages throughout the Internet to a mail server. A disadvantage with prior art SMTP servers and mail servers is that they do not provide a convenient, non-invasive way to determine whether or not an e-mail address is valid. A person or enterprise may wish to validate an e-mail address for several reasons. For example, a company may distribute promotional materials to an e-mail list. Many of the addresses on the list may be invalid due to the owners changing Internet providers or canceling e-mail or Internet service. The sender then may receive return messages indicating that an error has occurred due to invalid addresses.
The only way to validate an address using the prior art systems is to send a message to the mail server and wait for a xe2x80x9cno-replyxe2x80x9d message from the destination mail server to indicate that the e-mail address or identification no longer exists. A side effect of this procedure is that, if the e-mail address is valid, the user receives a message. Typically, the message includes instructions to ignore the message or to reply to the message to continue to receive e-mail notices or to be removed from an e-mail list.
In addition, a company cannot provide metrics about its quality of service (QOS) that are used in service-based contracts in which e-mail servers are maintained.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus for locating dead e-mail addresses without forwarding a message to valid recipients.
The present invention enables servers to send dummy e-mail messages to one another in order to receive status of e-mail identifications. The protocol layer is extended to include a user field to indicate that the message is not to be forwarded to the owner of the e-mail identification. A mail server that is not modified to support the field remains unaffected, while a mail server that supports the protocol extension sends a reply if the identification does not exist and discards the message if the identification does exist.